in reply to Re^3: Perl and memory usage. Can it be released?
in thread Perl and memory usage. Can it be released?

/* malloc_trim(size_t pad); If possible, gives memory back to the system (via negative arguments to sbrk) if there is unused memory at the `high' end of the malloc pool. You can call this after freeing large blocks of memory to potentially reduce the system-level memory requirements of a program. However, it cannot guarantee to reduce memory. Under some allocation patterns, some large free blocks of memory will be locked between two used chunks, so they cannot be given back to the system. The `pad' argument to malloc_trim represents the amount of free trailing space to leave untrimmed. If this argument is zero, only the minimum amount of memory to maintain internal data structures will be left (one page or less). Non-zero arguments can be supplied to maintain enough trailing space to service future expected allocations without having to re-obtain memory from the system. Malloc_trim returns 1 if it actually released any memory, else 0. On systems that do not support "negative sbrks", it will always return 0. */
You will not get a trim unless you write proof of concept code specifically to get a trim. That malloc.c says threshold for mmap is alloc size of >= 1 MB. Your process memory space will not shrink in most usage.